Driver dies when flames consume semi on Thruway

Updated 1:08 pm, Thursday, February 2, 2017

KINGSTON — A tractor trailer driver died on the Thruway after his truck hit another semi truck, struck a guardrail and caught fire, State Police said.

Firefighters doused the flames but Vernon W. Bigelow, 47, of St. Albans, Vt., died at the scene, troopers said.

Bigelow was driving north between exits 18 and 19 when his truck struck another tractor trailer at 8:54 p.m. Wednesday.

After the impact, Bigelow lost control of his rig and it hit the guardrail in the highway's median, bursting into flames.

The other tractor trailer was driven by Alex Calle-Cardenas, 28, of New Milford, Pa., troopers said. Calle-Cardenas told authorities his neck and back hurt but he turned down a ride to a local hospital.

The northbound lanes of the New York State Thruway in the Hudson Valley have reopened Thrusday morning after being closed for about eight hours because of the accident.

The crash, which occurred between the New Paltz and Kingston exits blocked both northbound lanes, forcing traffic to get off the highway at Exit 18. The lanes reopened around 5 a.m. Thursday.

The Times Herald-Record of Middletown reports that two trucks collided near Exit 19.